Hot damn!
Friday night’s NBC telecast of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was the most-watched and highest-rated non-U.S. summer Olympics opening ceremony broadcast ever.
The Beijing event averaged 34.2 million viewers!
According to the Hollywood Reporter, in the nearly 50 years of televised Olympics, that’s higher than any previous non-domestic summer opener — up 35% in viewers from the Athens ceremony in 2004 and 25% higher than Sydney in 2000.
NBC’s performance was far above industry expectations. Insiders had estimated that NBC’s event last night would drop about 11% from the Athens Games opener.
Plus, NBC has been pissed on for delaying broadcast of the ceremony until primetime while most nations aired the event live.
However, it’s argued that NBC’s patience may have aided the show in ways not anticipated by the network.
Great reviews and breathtaking images saturated the media on Friday. Many viewers probably tuned in to see if the ceremony could possibly live up to the hype.
We thought it did! It was absolutely breathtaking!
[Image via Pacific Coast News.]